Aurora mayor pitches park, city cooperation in State of the City Address

Aurora Mayor Tom Weisner Thursday announced the city and the Fox Valley Park District would begin talks about the possibility of transferring some Aurora city parks to Park District control.

Weisner made the announcement during his State of the City Address before a packed crowd at an Aurora Area Chamber of Commerce luncheon at Pipers Banquets in Aurora.

As a first step, Weisner said he would ask the City Council to give property on Galena Boulevard and Blackhawk Lane, where the city last year tore down the old building that housed West Aurora and Aurora Christian high schools, for development of a neighborhood park.

Weisner said he is making the suggestion as "a firm believer in eliminating governmental overlap and wasteful duplication of services."

He said because the Fox Valley Park District board soon will be elected, "it is time to begin discussions with them about consolidating as many Aurora-based parks as possible under the management of the Park District, and leaving the location and construction of further parks to the Park District, as well."

In addition to the park at Galena and Blackhawk, Weisner said he would ask the council to approve transfer of two parcels of land behind the Carson's store in Northgate Shopping center to the Park District to also develop a neighborhood park for the Bishop Park subdivision.

Turns out it wasn't a very original question. As Tom Weisner stood to face the 414 people...

The first question I asked the mayor when I ran into him right before he was set to deliver his 2016 State of the City address Thursday was whether this truly would be his last such speech as leader of Aurora.

Turns out it wasn't a very original question. As Tom Weisner stood to face the 414 people...

(Denise Crosby)

"These initiatives will be part of a comprehensive agreement between the city and the Park District involving the trading of several Park District or city-owned parcels that create, what I would call, a win-win-win situation for the city, the Park District and especially for Aurora residents," Weisner said.

Jim Pilmer, Fox Valley Park District director, said after the meeting the park on Galena would be similar to McCarty Park on the East Side. Pilmer oversaw the renovation of McCarty Park when he was Aurora's city parks director.

He said the park would have a water feature. He said the district would look at starting development there this year, and finishing in 2017.

The park behind Northgate would actually be developed on land that is now two parking lots. Carson's no longer uses the lots, and neighborhood residents have been asking for the lots to be turned into a neighborhood park.

Alderman Michael Saville, 6th Ward, has said he would use his ward funds to buy the land. Then the city, if the council agrees, would transfer the lots to the Park District for park development.

An Aurora City Council committee has recommended the city accept the donation of a dilapidated house on South Fourth Street next to the Gilman Trail.

The house at 1126 S. Fourth St. is abandoned and has two separate mortgages on it, city officials said.

The owner now lives in Wisconsin, and wants...

An Aurora City Council committee has recommended the city accept the donation of a dilapidated house on South Fourth Street next to the Gilman Trail.

The house at 1126 S. Fourth St. is abandoned and has two separate mortgages on it, city officials said.

The owner now lives in Wisconsin, and wants...

(Steve Lord)

Pilmer said money already is allocated for that project.

After the speech, Weisner told The Beacon-News that movement of more city parks to the Park District "is a longer-term discussion."

"But it needs to happen," he said. "There are a lot of things that could be discussed and analyzed."

He said if the discussion starts while he still is mayor, there would be groundwork laid so a new mayor and City Council "wouldn't be starting from scratch."

Aurora has a dual park system, because the city developed parks before a Park District ever was formed. But there is precedent for the city transferring parks to the Park District.They did that with Lincoln Park on the West Side in the 1980s.

Weisner told the audience that the "world is seeing Aurora in a whole new light."

He said the city has "reinvented itself as a smart city," anchored by its 62 miles of fiber optic network.

He said Aurora also is sustainable city and a safe city, with crime down by more than half what it was 15 years ago.

He also pointed out that Aurora had its best year ever in 2015 for economic development, gaining more than a half-billion dollars in valuation for the first time. And the three-year period of 2013, 2014 and 2015 produced the highest total number of permits issued in any consecutive three-year period in Aurora's history, with the highest construction value for any three-year period of $1.15 billion.